Rush Limbaugh invoked eugenics and the holocaust in an attack on health care reform architect Jonathan Gruber's use of the phrase "genetic lottery" while describing discrimination in the health care system.

On the November 13 edition of MSNBC's Daily Rundown, host Chuck Todd asked MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber about the discriminatory nature of the health care system that the Affordable Care Act is designed to address. Gruber explained that "we currently have a highly discriminatory system where if you are sick... you cannot get health insurance":

That means that the genetic winners, the lottery winners who've been paying an artificially low price because of this discrimination now will have to pay more in return. And that, by my estimate, is about four million people. In return, we'll have a fixed system where over 30 million people will now for the first time be able to access fairly price and guaranteed health insurance.

During the November 15 edition of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh railed against Gruber's comments, denying that health insurance discriminates against the sick. Limbaugh distorted Gruber's comments to claim that he, like President Obama, believes "some people and some races are inherently genetically inferior." Limbaugh compared this belief to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, saying "the Nazis thought that the genetic lottery losers should be murdered, Adolf Hitler believed that Jews were genetic lottery losers and what did he do about it? Now Obama doesn't think that, apparently Obama and Mr. Gruber believe that genetic lottery losers should be compensated for their lousy genes":

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Thomas Bishop is an Associate Research Director at Media Matters and holds a M.A from the University of Arkansas and a B.A. in Political Science. He also currently serves as an Army Reserve officer, serving one tour of duty in Afghanistan and receiving the Bronze Star.

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